Moroccan terrorist fights to stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds

Moroccan terrorist Said Namouh fights to stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds

Said Namouh is an unrepentant terrorist. From his apartment in Quebec, he spread al-Qaeda propaganda over the Internet and posted anonymous messages threatening the West with “slaughter” and urging violence until “religion will be for Allah alone.”

A Quebec court convicted him in 2009 of four counts under the Anti-Terrorism Act, including participation in a terrorist group, extortion of a foreign government and plotting a bomb attack with a co-conspirator in Europe.

Once he has served his federal prison time, Canada intends to deport him back to his native Morocco. But now Namouh is quietly asking Ottawa to let him stay on “humanitarian and compassionate” grounds.

Related

Arguing his case before the Immigration Refugee Board recently, he complained he was the victim of a conspiracy involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Conservatives and Israel, and said he should not be deported in the interests of his child.

Namouh is unique among those convicted so far under Canada’s post-9/11 anti-terrorism laws. While others, such as Momin Khawaja and Zakaria Amara of the Toronto 18, were Canadian citizens, Namouh is not – meaning he can be deported once he completes his sentence.

However, his deportation order was issued for another criminal conviction. Two months before he was arrested for terrorism, he broke into his girlfriend’s house by forcing open a chained side door.

“I told him to leave,” she testified. “He asked me if I still loved him. I told him less and less. He then left the bedroom and went into the kitchen. He cut his right arm with a knife in a few spots. I don’t know how many times; there was a lot of blood.”

While that crime landed him a deportation order, the IRB also considered his subsequent terrorism convictions in deciding whether to let him stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Namouh was 30 years old when he immigrated to Canada in 2003, sponsored by his wife, a waitress from Maskinonge, about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal. When they split up in 2006, he moved to Trois-Rivières and began frequenting password-protected jihadist websites.

“Terrorism is in our blood, and with it we will drown the unjust,” he said in one Internet chat. In another, he said his dream was to die a martyr and have his son grow up a mujahedeen, or soldier of God.

He got involved in the Global Islamic Media Front, a pro-al-Qaeda group devoted to inciting and facilitating terrorism. He helped produce and distribute recruitment and training videos with names like Jihad academy video, Anti-personnel mine video and Explosive belt video.

When he began to suspect he was under investigation, he sent out an urgent message asking how to “erase all the jihadist films and books that are on my computer without leaving any traces, may Allah bless you all.”

The Quebec judge who heard his case said he was deeply involved.

“He was in the thick of things,” the judge wrote. “The accused has an essentially violent view of jihad. Moreover, the accused displayed enthusiasm in the conspiracy to carry out a terrorist bombing. He even helped find explosives.- He was determined to act.”

But when Namouh appeared before the IRB recently to make his case for mercy, he denied everything. He claimed he had done nothing except use the Internet to learn about Iran and Iraq. He said he had been framed.

“He alleged that he had never talked to anyone about killing people,” the IRB wrote in its March 13 decision, which was released Wednesday to the National Post.

“According to him, this is a political game and a conspiracy between the RCMP and the Conservative government. He stated that he was tried unfairly to protect Israel and that the Canadian authorities invented the attack.”

The IRB didn’t buy it.

Member Marie-Claude Paquette said Namouh was a “violent person,” “the risk of re-offending is still high today” and “there is currently no indication that rehabilitation is possible.”

She added he had few friends and no family in Canada, and his 12-year-old son is in Morocco. Namouh lived on welfare and filed tax returns only twice since arriving in Canada nine years ago.

His ties to Canada, Ms. Paquette said, were “almost nonexistent.”

She dismissed his bid to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. He could be deported as early as 2017, when he becomes eligible for parole. Last month, he appealed the decision to the Federal Court.